Hire more people from OKU community, says Yeoh

SUBANG JAYA: All ministries should have at least 1% of their staff from the OKU community, says Deputy Women, Family and Commu­nity Development Minister Hannah Yeoh (pic).

This would help people with disabilities to gain employment in both the public and private sector, she said.

“We are pushing ministries who have not fulfilled the 1% quota to do so in order to gain the authority to tell the private sector to follow suit,” she said after launching the P3KU Carnival here yesterday.

Yeoh said the Education Ministry had the highest number of employees with disabilities with 1,477 staff.

The Rural and Regional Develop­ment Ministry has the highest percentage at 1.87% of its staff who are people with disabilities followed by Yeoh’s own ministry at 1.75%.

As of now, there are 3,782 OKU registered employees, though the ministry’s target is to have 12,811 in the workforce.

She also said that employers could enjoy tax deductions double the amount paid to hire an OKU staff.

“If they hire an OKU for RM12,000 a year, they will get tax deductions worth RM24,000,” she added.

Employers can also enjoy single deductions for any physical modifications to their buildings and double deductions for any training provided to their OKU staff.

She said the ministry was also pushing for disabled people to register for OKU cards.

Most parents, she added, refrained from re­gistering their children due to social stigma.

“But disabilities may not be long term, all you need is a medical certificate to state you have recovered,” she added.

There are 487,904 registered OKU members in the country as at Nov 8, 2018.

Yeoh also said her ministry was contempla­ting adding sub-categories to the OKU card to help the community access specific services.